nuveraonlinefandomcom-20200214-history
History
History On January 7, 2007 Jacqueline "Wyllo" Rogers approached Tim Pelham of Nitrous Butterfly LLC independent games and discussed with him the feasibility of creating an online virtual world program that would be focused toward users 18 years of age or older. It turned out Tim had already been contemplating the same idea for several months which made this a perfect match. After both spent more than 6 months interviewing users from a multitude of virtual worlds and virtual chat programs a conclusion was reached that users of Second Life, There.com, and other similar programs, missed the element of privacy from their neighbors and other peering onlookers, whereas users of virtual chat programs such as IMVU wanted more freedom from restrictions due to interactions with under aged users as well as the limitations of the program for full movement such as walking, running and other basic activities generally associated with virtual environments. Tim Pelham decided that he would create the software that would power the program but, after many weeks of trial and error, realized that as a two person team with only one programmer this would be a daunting task that would take too long to finalize a usable product. With his previous knowledge of game development, from two smaller games he had created, Mr. Pelham sought out the various game engines to find one that would not only meet the needs of the program but also be inexpensive as all funding for the NuVera Online project would be funded by him and Ms. Rogers plus any donations offered. After testing several engines he decided that Unity 3D would be the best option for what they were trying to accomplish. Although this still meant a great deal of manual programming to accomplish the intended results, the engine was a sound basis to begin and was already available for multiple platforms (Windows and Mac compatible). Beta Testing -In July of 2008 alpha testing began with roughly 50 users that were willing to offer their feedback and suggestions. -This lead to a private beta test in the fall of 2009 with invitation only. Targetted testers were primarily user developers for the editor program to test out importing of 3D models and texture artists. -Closed beta testing was opened in early 2010 where users were permitted to invite their friends and family to also join in the testing phase. -By October 1, 2010 more than 500 users were registered as beta testers before the program was opened to the public as an open beta. -In January of 2012 NuVera Online was officially out of beta. This does not mean that the program will not continue to evolve but the core programming was complete. Vehicles January 2013 the first vehicle was added, the Zip, which has a unique physics aspect and the ability to have a passenger. September 2013 the B.O.B.B was introduced. B.O.B.B. is a hoverboard option with a turbo boost trigger for excellent trick jumping. Additional vehicles planned are a jetski, speedboat, multi-passenger vehicle (the over all look is undecided at this time) and a Dart (a single rider vehicle with a similar look to a segway). Major Changes/Issues Avatars Part way through 2008 testing it was realized that there were some issues with the initial maps and models for the avatars and their clothing. The first change was to start with all new avatars. Once this was complete testing on clothing was made. Some additional changes had to be made on the maps used by the texture artists as some major flaws were found in them. Once this was finalized, however, no more changes have been made. In 2011 user created animations were implemented into the program. There was a 'twitch' in the animations that could not be resolved for quite some time but creative user developers were able to work with it and started importing new dances, poses and emotes. The 'twitch' was caused by a conversion issue within the Unity3D engine itself and research over many months did not find any resolution to the issue. It was not until mid 2013 when a resolution for the 'twitch' was found and now all animations can run without hitches that are due to the base engine. In 2013 user Miaka618 was requested to create custom idle animations for the avatars. The new animations gave life to the avatars where they used to stand still and not feel realistic. Server Crash In January of 2013 the primary server which housed the majority of the data had a severe head crash. The data that had been saved into backups for the past two months had been either lost or corrupted and nothing could be recovered. It was discovered that the backup data that was being pulled from the server over the previous two months was mostly corrupted as well. Most of the data that was corrupted was for the user created catalogue and the forums. The community banded together and a large number of users sent in their cached files to help rebuild the catalogue from scratch. User developers spent hours rebuilding their catalogues to again offer their products to other users. It was a very impressive feat and within two weeks most of the user catalogue and the website were back to normal. Sunset Harbor Becomes Sunset Isle One of the early NuVO islands was Sunset Harbor. It was created with exploration in mind and later having roadways for users to drive on. However, it was felt that the island was too small for both exploration and driving as both could be completed in a very short period of time. In early 2013 it was decided that a new area would be created that would overwrite the harbor and bring it to a much larger area. This area became Sunset Isle which has five times the foot print that the harbor had. The roadway covers 2.4 miles around the island and there are many areas to explore including a small swamp, beach front areas, a small plaza location, and many easter eggs located throughout. Hobbies and Crafting In November of 2013 Hobbies and crafting was introduced bringing with it a new currency and a new way to explore and be creative. Treasure Tokens were created to bring a new currency to the program which could be earned by doing various activities, including crafting and hobbies. This currency can only be utilized within the NuVO Market, which was introduced at the same time to accomodate the new currency and purchasable items. The first 10 levels were brought in initially with the ability to either find resources laying around the world or purchasing a Scav-Scanner and digging deeper under the land for ores. Scavenger hunting can only be done in NuVO created areas (Tutorial Island and Sunset Isle currently). In December of 2013, 10 more levels were introduced, bringing the level up to 20 and adding a new ore element, iron, and a new zone, the Abandoned Mine. These changes introduced many new craftable items with it. In January 2014, 5 more levels were added bringing the level to 25 and expanding the use of the mine and introducing more uses for some of the lesser used collectable items from the lower levels. Future plans include adding fishing and gardening.